A lithium battery used in a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), an electric vehicle (EV), or the like, has many advantages such as output, energy density, and the like, as compared with a conventional Ni-MH battery. However, due to heat generated during using the lithium battery, a lifespan of the lithium battery may decrease under an elevated temperature weather condition or an output of the lithium battery may decrease under a substantially lowered temperature weather condition. Therefore, in order to prevent the lifespan, the output, and the like, of the battery from decreasing, managing a temperature of the battery may be critical.
For the purpose of heat management, an air cooling type system cooling the battery using air or a water cooling type system cooling the battery using water, oil or the like has been used to cool the battery under the elevated temperature weather condition, and a heater core, a planar heater, or the like, has been used in order to raise a temperature of the battery under the lowered temperature weather condition.
However, generally, a cooling system and a temperature elevating system may include separate components. For example, a cooling fan, a pump, a duct, a pipe, and the like have been provided to cool the battery, or the heater core, the planar heater and the like have been mounted to raise a temperature of the battery. Accordingly, the cooling system and the temperature elevating system may not be operated without separate logics.
During cooling the battery, an air cooling type system using air or a water cooling type system using water, oil and the like has been typically used. The air cooling type system may have advantages such as simple components such as a cooling duct, a cooling fan, and the like, and a simple operation logic, but may be disadvantageous such as a complicated cooling air channel, a limitation in decreasing a volume of a battery module due to a cooling channel, noise of the cooling fan, low cooling performance and the like. On the other hand, the water cooling type system may have improved cooling performance, but may be disadvantageous such as a complicated configuration/operation logic, an excessive weight, a high cost and the like.
As a method of elevating the temperature of the battery, a method of heating air in a battery case and then raising the temperature of the battery using the heated air, a method of installing a heater core in the water cooling type system to heat a refrigerant, thereby raising the temperature of the battery and the like have been developed. However, for the temperature elevating system, a time necessary for elevating the temperature of the battery may be substantially long, efficiency of elevating temperature may be reduced since a battery housing and other components are heated in addition to the battery module. In addition, power consumption may be substantial since greater power may be consumed in elevating a temperature of a refrigerant having a high specific heat up to an optimal temperature and energy driving a refrigerant pump is also consumed.
The matters described as the related art have been provided only for assisting in the understanding for the background of the present invention and should not be considered as corresponding to the related art known to those skilled in the art.